News

Santa Catalina School students demonstrated their command of world languages and took home awards at state and national contests.

Three students competed in the 46th CLTAC Mandarin Chinese Speech Contest, organized by the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California. Leah Brewer '24 took third place in the high school Level 2 division. In the high school Level 3 division, Sara Wu '23 took second place and Tarn Reilly '23 took first place.

This year’s contest was held virtually. The students recorded themselves making a three- to four-minute speech on the topic of their choosing. Leah talked about moving and starting high school during the pandemic, Sara talked about her sister, and Tarn talked about rugby.

The purpose of the contest is to foster good language skills, with emphasis placed on accuracy, fluency, delivery, cadence, and content. A total of 244 students from kindergarten through college participated in the contest.

Juniors Gabriela Herrera, Elena Oh, and Cindy Dai competed in the National French Contest (Le Grand Concours) run by the American Association of French Teachers. All three are French 3 Honors students and competed in the Level 3 division, which drew 8,473 students. The contest is based in reading and listening comprehension.

With percentiles ranging from 84 to 98, Cindy received a bronze medal, Elena a silver medal, and Gabriela a gold medal. This was Elena’s second medal in the national contest; last year she received gold in the Level 2 division.

Santa Catalina’s World Languages Department offers Mandarin Chinese from Level 1 to AP and Advanced Topics, and French from Level 1 to AP.